I loved it as I expected I would. It's another great effort from Mr. Mack. This is how you tell a story that involved multiple series without resorting to "guest star team up." This book really puts the rest of the TNG relaunch to shame. The Borg are handled well. The humor works. The tone is nice and there are major changes to characters that don't feel half-assed. Too bad I don't have book 2 in my hands right now.

I just read the prolouge and first chapter friday, and so far so good. I only have about 25 pages left on Kobayashi Maru now, so I was probably gonna finish that before I read anymore GoN. Is that mystery resolved by the end of this book, or is does it go through the whole trilogy?

I just finished reading GoN. I really enjoyed the book. The Caeliar were very interesting aliens. I am always fascinated by aliens who are truly different than humans, both in their physical appearance and their cultural values. And, it was cool that they have city-ships like Atlantis from Stargate: Atlantis. The book did a great job of telling different stories but tying them together.

I wonder if the Caeliar will solve Troi's pregnancy problem, especially since they value life so much.

I am guessing the advanced civilization sent the feedback pulse for much the same reasons why the Caeliar displace intruders. They see the Caeliar as less advanced, like the Caeliar view humans. Like the Caeliar, they do not like lesser lifeforms violating their privacy.

Also, if I understand things right, the Borg basically found a way to use the Caeliar's space tunnels used to contact other civilization, as a way to travel through space faster than transwarp. If I am right, I wonder what the Caeliar will do when they discover what the Borg are doing?

Finished the book last night. I didn't find it as gripping as Warpath, which was one of the two other Mack-Stories I've read and my personal favorite. I guess thats because of GoN mainly being setup und being divided into four different plots that converge only at the end of the book.

Nevertheless it was still an entertaining, good read.

Having not read any novels of the TNG-relaunch, it was great to see Picard & Crew back in Action. A lot has changed since Nemesis, character- and crew-wise, and I found it well written and intriguing. This part really succeeds in creating a feeling of tension, dread and hopelessness.

The Titan-plot was a bit underwhelming, partly because not much was happening (they found a strange star system, got knocked out of warp a bit and arrived at said star system and thats about it) and partly because the baby-issue was already very prominent in Sword of Damocles. While I realize that its important for the characters and I'm interested to see how it plays out, I hope it gets resolved soon one way or the other (hopefully in this trilogy). I can only take so much of a depressive captain and his wife before I stop enjoying the story. Maybe the Caeliar can help?
Afterall, since they are so concerned about preserving sentient life in their care, shouldn't it be against their laws to not help Deanna?

Over at the Gamma-Quadrant, I really didn't see the twist about the intruder coming, which was a nice touch. From the way it was described in the earlier chapters it seemed to be a very powerful and evil entity that would play a major part in this trilogy. For a moment, I even thought it was whoever sent that feedback pulse to Erigol, and that it had hitched a ride on Columbia during her journey through the subspace tunnel.
Was very surprised to see it turn out to be sort of a red hering. Ezri works well as a captain and I especially liked her banter with Bowers. I can't wait to read about how she got that post.

Although they reminded me a bit of Stargates Nox (what with the floating cities, Isolation, Pacifism and all), the Caeliar are a great addition to the pantheon of almost omnipotent Trek-species. I like that Hernandez plays such an important part in this story, as I always liked her appearances on ENT as well. The conflict between her and Foyle played out nicely, and I really didn't see it coming when Foyle had Thayer shot. Very interesting (and ruthless) choice of tactic, that made me hate him with a passion and admire his tactical skills both at the same time.
But like Baerbel, I had to laugh at the "Scheisskopf"-bit. I've honestly never heard that insult before, and I live in Germany. Insults like "Depp", "Idiot"(Yes, we use that too) or "Vollhonk" (quite popular among the youth nowadays) all mean the same thing and would have been much more fitting, imho.

Yes, I'm being quite nitpicky here. You can thank Marvel and DC for that. "Der Himmel Blutungen" my ass.
It can't be that hard, to google some common german insults, can it?

I'm btw on board with the poster who guessed, we might see the origin of the Borg here. Wouldn't be surprised, if Karl Graylock and the city he was on ended up somewhere in the Deltaquadrant.
If that turns out to be true, then Riker would have quite a point to convince the Caeliar to help the Federation. After all, it would be their fault the Borg exist.

I'll refrain from a final verdict until I 've read all three books. But its shaping up pretty nicely.

Ezri works well as a captain and I especially liked her banter with Bowers. I can't wait to read about how she got that post.

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This is actually covered in the first chapter of the book. Ezri was appointed Captain after the original Captain, and First Officer were killed in a battle with Borg. Aftewards, she was given command and brought Bowers and Leishman on board to replace the XO, and the Cheif Engineer who was also killed. I'm suprised so many people missed that.

This is actually covered in the first chapter of the book. Ezri was appointed Captain after the original Captain, and First Officer were killed in a battle with Borg. Aftewards, she was given command and brought Bowers and Leishman on board to replace the XO, and the Cheif Engineer who was also killed. I'm suprised so many people missed that.

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I didn't miss it. But we still don't know how or why she ended up on the Aventine in the first place.

Googling is easy. Knowing how they're going to sound to a living, breathing native speaker is more difficult.

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Which is why I didn't complain, that it was inappropriate in the given Situattion (which it actually was ).

But enough of that. For most people, this is a non-issue anyway, since they're not native German speakers.
Don't want to derail the discussion.

"There must be dozens of populated systems within a light-year of each pulse," Pazlar said.

"Eighty-three to be precise," Tuvok said...

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What David meant to write, I believe was, "There must be dozens of populated systems within a light-year of a pulse," because if there were 83 stars within a light-year of each pulse, that wouldn't make sense. Perhaps an even better way to put it would have been, "Each of those pulses is within a light-year of a populated system and there are dozens of pulses!"

Well...I have 1/5 of the book to finish, and I want to do it at one sitting, but let me make my comments and questions:

I like the way the chapters are broken up into the year it takes place in, and the only thing I would have added was, say the ship's name, current stardate, and location as a preamble before going into what was happening on the Enterprise,Titan, etc...to give it more of a "Hunt for Red October" sorta feel. (But that's just me, I'm sure.)

I visualize the Caeliar as a cross between the Genoshans from Episode II and those aliens from The Abyss.

I, also, am at a loss as to when B'Ellana leaves Tom. Did she leave him to go into hiding to protect Miral? Also...when the heck is Voyager in space again? Wasn't that ship turned into a museum?

I like how the Excalibur was mentioned but not being part of the story cross over. I found myself mentally noting where the ships of my own fan fics would be during this storyline as well.

I wonder if a frustrated Riker will seek some "console" from Vale. There was a hint that he was thinking that.

The Anime Sex Kitten T'Ryssa Chen only has one line in this book and it doesn't involve her thinking about recreational sexual intercourse, having recreational sexual intercourse, or simply being with no clothes on, yet she still manages to irritate Picard.

I accidently flipped to the back of the book and notice the Appendix section. Why the HELL isn't THAT in the BEGINNING of the book??

All in all...one of the better Trek Novels I have read in a LONG time and I look forward to the next three stories!

To add another voice to the chorus, I didn't know it either. However, I did google it, on the off chance that I simply wasn't aware of it (which isn't that impossible, given the fact that there are vast differences in slang vocabulary between the various Austrian regions - especially between the east and west of the country - as well as between the German spoken in, well, Germany and that in Austria), and I found that it appears on several Austrian sites (though not often enough to make me believe it is widely used).

Anyway, I volunteer to help out whenever German expressions are needed for future Trek fiction. I may be on the other side of the planet, but I'm only an email away.